Velvet Black
by Aisa Hitsuuna
Summary: Her beliefs were a secret because diversity meant you weren't a family in her house anymore. However, in every way that she can, Cassiopeia Black tries her hardest to help everyone else. Being a proud Slytherin doesn't make you any less of a good person. She's going to prove that to the whole Wizarding world... except maybe her parents.


_**Slytherin**_  
_THOSE OF GREAT AMBITION_

**They are:**

_ambitious, driven, focused on goals, determined, prepared, subtle, perfectionists. adaptable, realistic, big on cost/benefit, analysis, self-reliant, charming, bold and assertive, ruthless and able to separate their idea of themselves from what they do, able to use their intelligence as a tool to achieve their goals._

**They are not (necessarily):**

_Disloyal (however, their loyalty is highly selective) or disregarding of the opinions of others (in fact, Slytherns love positive attention and thrive on praise)_

**Remember:**

_Slytherins are no gratuitously mean, in fact, they treat people with respect because they care about the impression they give._

**_REMEMBER: DO NOT STEREOTYPE.  
THERE IS MORE TO EVERYONE THAN MEETS THE EYE._**

**_DO _**

**_NOT_**

**_BE_**

**_THAT_**

**_ASS_**

**_HOLE_**

**_!_**

* * *

"Hey, Cass." Draco murmured as he seated himself next to his cousin. Cassiopeia Black nodded silently in greeting just as, Zabini, Crabbe and Goyle sat down on either hers or Draco's side except Parkinson, who sat across from Draco with a twisted scowl on her face. Cass found herself frowning as she saw that, Pansy was really too pretty to look so ugly. "What lessons do you have next?" The white-blond asked as he stacked some food onto his plate, most Slytherins following his example.

Cass grabbed a strand of her coal black hair and twisted it around her finger, "Double potions with the Gryffindors." She replied as monotone as ever. However, the others weren't as emotionless to the set up as she was. Crabbe and Goyle shared identical looks before they started laughing loudly, spitting the food from their mouths disgustingly. Zabini looked disheartened and shook his head, almost as if he was pitying the entire arrangement. Draco snorted loudly,

"It should be an easy class then, Snape's a fair teacher. He knows which side he should favor." Draco said with the roll of his eyes before he started to snicker. "You should give those filthy blood traitors hell, Cass." He sneered as he stared across the hall at a pair of red haired twins. Fred and George Weasley weren't the ickle second year's favorite people, none of the Weasley's were in his good books actually... Come to think of it, Draco didn't really have much friends outside of his loyal handful of followers.

Parkinson wiped her eyes, sighing in amusement. "How unlucky you must be, Cassiopeia. How unlucky indeed," She said snidely, which was a tone that she couldn't drop. Everything she said sounded condescending, which helped, since most of the things she said was quite insulting. Unless you demanded respect and order from her, like Cass did, then she had the decency to change her tone every now and then.

"Don't call me Cassiopeia." Cass bit back immediately, frowning as she stabbed her toast with her fork. "I hate that name. You know that." Cass hated her whole name for the fact that it was simply the most unattractive, most longest thing that her parents could think of. Of course, she was aware that the Black's and Malfoy's had a _tradition_ to name children after constellations, which wasn't always the best thing. Sometimes you could get names like: Carina Black or Vela Malfoy, or you could get Narcissa, Andromeda or Draconis. It was a horrid fate.

Others seemed fond of it though and that's all that actually mattered to most pure bloods. Parkinson rose her hands in surrender, "Alright, alright. My mistake, Cass." She stressed on the nickname. "Don't stab me with that fork, please." She pleaded almost mockingly. Cass was the calmest, probably most fair and quietest Slytherin in the entire house. She was a fifth year prefect, though she didn't actually act like one. She still stayed in her room in every spare moment she had while her housemates caused trouble for mostly the Gryffindors.

Cass sighed and shifted the egg around on the toast, not feeling up for breakfast that much. Food wasn't actually that high on her priorities, she didn't like eating that much. It was a waste of time to her and she wouldn't have done it if food wasn't essential to her survival. Draco rolled her eyes at Parkinson as he knew how much she enjoyed seeing how far she could push Cass.

Zabini leaned forward, "You're talkative this morning, Black." He said sarcastically as he tore through a piece of bacon. "Did you receive a valentines gift or something?" He asked a little more seriously. Valentines Day was actually tomorrow and was bound to be extravagant due to their new DADA teacher's arrival- Gilderoy Lockhart was a flamboyant soul who had a knack for stealing other peoples stories and gaining fame out of them. As Goyle had said countless times, he was the ideal Slytherin. Cass would have killed herself if he was actually sorted into her house. She didn't need the reputation of Slytherin tarnished anymore with his name engraved into their house member roll call or something.

"I actually realized I have DADA after potions, Zabini." Cass defended, though someone would tell you that she didn't really care from her tone. "It's one bad class after another."

"It isn't like you can't change that." Draco almost scolded as he rolled her eyes once again, biting his french toast in half. Parkinson watched his behavior and scrunched her nose up at him. Her father would blow a gasket if he saw someone eating in such a manner.

Cass narrowed her eyes at him, "I need to go." She said in contrast to yelling at him. She didn't enjoy the idea of abusing her family's position in society. Her father was an influential figure in the ministry, even higher than Lucius Malfoy, so she could get whatever she wanted at the snap of a finger. Cass didn't do that though because she liked working for things herself, unless she knew that she couldn't. Then she gave up, quite frequently. She had many unfinished projects waiting for her in the dungeon and quite frankly, she didn't expect to pick those up ever again. The main point was that Draco knew that she worked for things herself and he knew how much he hated when she suggested to use her pure blood position to get things she wanted.

"Look, you angered her, Malfoy." Goyle said with a frown as Cass began to get up.

Draco sent him a chilly glare, "Shut it, Goyle." He spat before he devoured the rest of his breakfast. Cass wanted to cuff him around the head for how he was eating but that wasn't the main priority. She needed to get to potions so she could find a seat in the back, where the twins couldn't try and throw stuff at her again. It got old after 4 months.

* * *

Cass stood next to Elizabeth Fawkes as Snape prowled in front of the class, eyes searching around the class, darkening every time he locked eyes with a Gryffindor. He looked particularly peeved when he saw the Weasley twins in his class, immediately knowing that there was going to be trouble. Cass guessed that he was going through all sorts of counter curses that he'd use after waiting for the twins to do something that would land them a detention. That was Snape's ambition in every Gryffindor class- make sure someone demotes points or gets sent to Filch for detention.

"Today, you will be brewing a Strengthening Solution, to the best of your ability. You will not be tested on how well you do today, but, if you fail to make a competent potion... You will be required to write an essay on how to properly brew the potion and why it is necessary to not. Fail." Snape said in a deep, drawling voice, making point to emphasize almost every second word. He looked around the room once more before he whipped around and sat at his desk. "You may begin." He said sternly. Immediately students got to work.

Cass turned to Fawkes and picked up some snake fangs, throwing four into the cauldron, ignoring how it fizzed up. With out waiting for Fawkes, she through in an arm bone and a purple thorn blossom. "Mix the potion twice clockwise and then five times anti-clockwise." She ordered Fawkes, who was waiting for the instruction. She usually let Cass do most of the work, like handling the ingredients. She was far to clumsy to deal with that type of stuff. Cass began to crush the griffin claw, turning it into fine powder before she scooped a few handfuls into the cauldron, adding seven drops of Salamander drops as she instructed Fawkes to stir, watching as the color slowly turned from yellow to orange to red then to pink and purple, which was their desired color. It wasn't a very difficult potion, but it took two lessons as it needed time to mature.

Suddenly, a foul burnt-rubber smell infected Cass' nostrils and she blocked her nose instantly, nearly gagging. "What the hell?" Fawkes asked with a nasally voice, sounding infuriated. "Is that our potion?" She asked Cass, who shook her head and stared at the twin's hear expectantly. They were the only ones who were laughing at the situation. Fawkes looked over at Lee Jordan's potion and frowned disgusted as the yellow slime jumped out of the cauldron and onto the floor. Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet squealed as a steaming purple blob melted through their cauldron.

Snape looked livid. "What is going on here?!" He yelled as he stood up and waved waved a wand at Spinnet and Johnson's potions, making it completely disappear. Once he stopped Jordan's potion from moving and made that disappear as well, he looked at the trio. "Spinnet, Johnson, Lee, go to the Hospital Wing and make sure you aren't injured." He snapped, making them scramble for the door. He then turned his attention to the foul smelling potion, eyes narrowing as he saw George and Fred grinning at him.

"You two." Snape drawled, crossing his arms. "This is _not_ surprising at all. Tell me, how did you manage to do something out of the books and get not only the color wrong, but the smell as well? If you were unaware, Mr Weasley, Mr Wealsey, the Strengthening Solution is an odorless potion." His voice was tight as he tried to actually figure out how they messed up.

Fred clapped his hands, "Well, Severus," Snape didn't like the casual addressing. "That result would've been worrying if-"

"We were actually making that stupid Strengthening stuff, which we actually-" George continued on for Fred, only to stop as Fred followed up.

"Aren't! We weren't even paying attention so-"

And George took over again. Cass was getting dizzy, how did they do that? Did they have a script or something? "We decided to just add whatever we wanted which resulted in-"

Cass rubbed her temples. Wow, she was going to get a head ache. How... How were they doing that? "This! Isn't is a wonderful invention?" Fred sounded rather fond of the invention, grinning as he patted himself on the back awkwardly.

George started to nod enthusiastically, "We were thinking of giving it to you, as a gi-" Snape cut him off with a irritable expression.

"Unbelievable! You two are the most incompetent, immature duo I have _ever_ had the misfortune to teach." Snape started to walk toward them with the intent that it would make him biggest, therefore more intimidating. It didn't go as planned as George (Or Fred? Cass couldn't tell) _"accidentally"_ added a little feather into the cauldron, which caused it to boil over. Snape looked at it with mild confusion for a single second before realization crossed his features.

Too late.

The entire thing exploded, sending the foul-smelling rubber thing around the room. Cass and Fawkes gasped as it completely drenched them, Snape and basically all the Slytherins, as they were in line of the explosion. Suddenly it made sense why the twins sat right in the middle of the line of Slytherins. They had been planning to blow up their potion the entire day and were all but rolling on the floor laughing as they were clean and rubber free, and right in front of a livid Severus Snape.

"Headmasters office. NOW!" He snapped at them, looking angrier when they didn't stop laughing. Snape went for his wand, which was in his sleeve, and his eyes widened when his arm didn't move a bit. Cass frowned in confusion and tried to move her arms from her side and was surprised to find that they were actually stuck to her sides. Unbelievable. When the twins realized it had worked, they could've just cried from joy. Most of the students started screaming at the Weasley's.

"Sure, we'll go." George wheezed as he made an attempt to move.

Fred piped in happily, "We know the way."

"And the password." George added as an after thought. It wasn't surprising, they probably had frequent visits to Dumbledore's office.

Fred looked at the floor and sighed in dismay, "Oh, Georgie, would you look at the floor!" George obeyed and stared at the rubber-stuck floor. "It'll be impossible to walk around this mess!"

"If only there was a teacher who could clean it," George added on, looking like his pet had died. "It seems we can't go to the headmaster's office to receive our punishment." He said as he grinned at Snape, who was beginning to lose that last shred of patience he had.

"Know what we can do though?" George said as he started to walk backwards.

"Run?" Fred suggested.

"We're good at doing that," George agreed before they bolted out of the door, just as soon as Snape preformed wand-less magic and dispelled the rubber from his body, taking out his wand and doing the same for the rest of the class. The Gryffindors on the other side just didn't stop laughing, which caused an argument to arise. They all knew that Snape wouldn't be back for a while, so a heated argument was going to be a long one.

Cass looked down at her cauldron and growled. Her potion was absolutely ruined.

"I'll get them," Fawkes hissed as she snapped her quill in half.

Cass found herself nodding, "Not if I get there first."

* * *

**THE NEXT DAY**

* * *

Cass stroked her dark owl before she attached the letter to his leg, "Deliver this to Father, Tenebris. You know where he is." Her barn owl hooted and nipped gently at her nose before he flew out of the owl post. Cass rubbed her arms nervously, already anticipating the passive anger that would be awaiting her in a week or so. Maybe if he was angry enough, she'd get a response tomorrow morning during breakfast. Yes, that'd be a horrifying thing to witness.

Cassiopeia turned and went to exit the door only for it to open and nearly slam her in the face, had she not flinched back in time. She found herself staring into two mischievous blue eyes, who had gone blank as soon as they saw her and her Slytherin colored tie. Cass gulped and averted her eyes, stepping to the side to let them and their heavy-looking package through before her. Her act seemed to catch them off guard, "What'd you do?" One asked. George? She didn't know!

"Nothing." She said tiredly. "Your package looked heavy so..." She shrugged and waited for them to hurry up and post whatever they had. They shared a look between each other before they hesitantly stepped into the post room, never taking their eyes off of Cassiopeia. She nodded once they had cleared the doorway and left swiftly, her pace increasing as she did so.

_Valentines Day._

It was as if the world hated her. She definitely hated it at the moment. Cassiopeia had an obvious distaste towards the bright pink halls and feared what the great hall would be decorated as. Valentines Day wasn't nearly as big as a thing the last five years as it was this year and she knew to blame it on that fat-headed Lockhart. His big head could rival Lucius Malfoy's, the only difference being Lucius had a more passive way of showing his superiority. Lockhart just thrived on the attention, especially the ladies attention.

As she burnt a mistletoe that she was about to walk under, she barged into the Great Hall. No one looked at her, only a few Slytherins and maybe curious Gryffindors, but she had froze in the doorway. Pink. Hearts. They were floating down from the ceiling, while the entire room was pink and smelt strongly of roses. Lockhart was bathing in the front with his secret admirer's gifts surrounding him like a pool. Cass could've gagged at the site of the castle. It seemed she was going to go home early this year.

"Oh bloody hell." She whispered to herself before sitting at the end of the Slytherin table next to Theodore Nott. Her cousin sneered at her before he actually realized it was her then he smirked.

"Enjoying yourself, Cass?" Draco asked, knowing full well she hated the occasion. "I think you suit pink, it goes very well with your hair." The sarcastic little shit commented as he took a bite out of his chocolate fudge.

Parkinson giggled, GIGGLED, as she leaned forward and gazed at Draco with a dazed expression on her face. You would've thought she was under the effects of a love potion if you didn't know her. She had a lot of moments where she was just look at Draco like he was the reason she could continue living. Cassiopeia knew that Draco knew of her infatuation and he constantly abused it, which never failed to anger Cass. She hated when he did stuff like that.

"Draco." Cass commented dully. "I will turn your hair pink if you so much comment on this day one more time." At he threat of his hair being turned anything other than his pale, _"perfect"_ color, Draco submitted and began to brag to his posse about how he managed to one up Potter and his friends during potions, Cass could've bet her owl that it was because of Snape's favoritism.

Suddenly, there was a loud tapping of wood against wood, turning everyone's head to the podium where Lockhart seemed to have taken over. Dumbledore seemed pretty amused from his spot at the Professor's table. "And now," Lockhart began loudly, with a sneaky look in his eyes. He winked at a random girl, who started to squeal. "THE PRESENTS!"

The doors slammed open like they had done it themselves as owls swooped in with packages and little pink boxes. Cassiopeia didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff since her owl was already doing something, hence forth the visit to the owl post. She wasn't going to let the opportunity to be reminded what the horrid day was.

Seems like fate just loved to play with her today.

Quite a few owls flew above Slytherins table and dropped packages, Draco getting a few. Cass saw Parkinson eye up a box that was surely her gift and then glare at every other one he got. However, Draco's unwrapping of his glorious packages could wait as exactly five little boxes dropped in front of Cass. Nearly the entire table gasped. Cass glared at them, wishing that they'd set themselves on fire. Every year.

Every

Single

Year

Even though just about the entire school knew of her hatred for holidays, she always gained one more reminder of the horrifying day. Cass looked down at all the tables and caught a first year Gryffindor looking her way with hope in his eyes, he blushed when she locked eyes with him. Oh no, not a lion. Cass opened up the red and gold package and stared blankly as she saw little chocolate wrappers. They were muggle. Her admirer was muggle-born, how _delightful _was that! Regardless, Cass peeled off the wrapper for one and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully before her eyes lit up.

"These are delicious!" Cass gasped like a child would. She grabbed another and threw it into her mouth, smiling gleefully. How did the ickle little firstie know that chocolate was her weakness?! WHO CARED?! Nott chuckled under his breath and went to grab one, which Cass allowed since he was a nice kid. When Draco went to snatch one she slapped his hand away.

"How come Nott gets one and I don't?" Draco snapped. "_I'm_ your cousin!"

"Yeah, but you're a prat." Cass said disarmingly. Draco frowned and Cass rolled her eyes. "Here, have some of this one." Cass pulled open another little heart shaped box and grabbed the little note sitting on top. Draco grinned triumphantly and reached for the top one that was carved like a snake. Meanwhile, Cass read the note, still chewing on the muggle chocolate.

_Thanks for not blowing up the owl post.  
__Have a treat for not being a right foul git!_

_ENJOY!_

She re-read the note to make sense of it before her eyes widened in realization. "Dray." Cass said instinctively using the nickname, "Don't eat that." She said suddenly.

Draco threw the chocolate into his mouth and smiled crudely. "Nah ah. There's more in there, Cass, you don't have to eat _all_ of it." As he said that, he began to chew and slowly, his hair actually began to turn pink, as his skin began to turn a bright red. Not a natural type of red that someone got when embarrassed or something, no, it was a bright, fiery red. Like, the Weasley family red.

The entire table started to snicker and Nott pointed to his face to make it clear to Draco what the problem was. Draco looked down at his forearm and his eyes blazed furiously. "Who the hell did this?!"

Cass was the only one not laughing, though there was a smirk. Almost everyone from other tables were finding extreme joy in seeing the notorious Malfoy look like a rose of some sort. Lockhart started to laugh from the front, "Seems as though there's been a bit of a practical joke! Not to worry though, young man, I'll take care of this."

Having already seen what Lockhart _wasn't_ capable of, Cass stood up instantly. "No, don't do that." She told him a little worried. "You'll only make things worse." More laughs.

Lockhart didn't even seem that offended, only whipped his coat to the side and took out his wand. "Oh, don't fret, you little rose. It will be simple to clean up this mess." He began to walk towards them and Cass walked around to Draco's side of the table and heaved him up, smiling sourly at the useless DADA teacher.

"You _really_ shouldn't." She growled before pulling Draco out of the hall before Lockhart could make things worse. As she got closer to the door, Cass looked at the Gryffindor table and tilted her head at the roaring twins. She looked at the muggle-born and nodded her head in thanks before she dragged Draco out of the Great Hall, where he blew up immediately.

"HOW DARE THEY!"

* * *

George seized in his laughing when he noticed Cassiopeia look his way. George nudged Fred and pointed to where they had just left, "I think Black knows that it was us." He said, giggling childishly.

Fred shrugged, "Well, are we going to make sure she doesn't tell Malfoy?"

"Oh, dear brother. What a mind you have."

Fred grinned at George before they both stood up and grinned at Hermione, Ronald and Harry. "See you guys later!" He and George chorused before they bounced out of the room. Ginny was writing furiously in her diary, hopefully not about a secret admirer she had. Fred and George entered the hallway and walked quietly behind Black and Malfoy, far enough for them to not see but close enough to hear their conversation. It wasn't hard with Malfoy all but screaming.

"HOW DARE THEY!" He screamed, shaking in anger. "MY FATHER WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS AND I'LL GET WHOEVER DONE THIS EXPELLED! IMMEDIATELY!"

They heard Black sigh, "Dray, calm down." She murmured. "It was just a practical joke, alright? Have a sense of humor." Fred looked at George with a confused face and wanted an explanation, but he looked just as confused. He was almost certain that Black knew it was them, she looked right at them before she left. Was she defending them or what?

"Just a joke? JUST A JOKE? Cass, they humiliated me. ME, Draco Malfoy!" The little second year fumed. George mocked what Draco was saying silently, rolling his eyes as he whined and puffed out his chest. Fred covered his mouth to mute his laughing- it was spot on.

Black picked up a strand of Malfoy's pink hair. "If I recall correctly, I did threaten to turn your hair pink before." She said amused. "And I did warn you not to eat them."

"Speaking of, how did you know something was wrong with them?" He questioned still angry. George looked at Fred with wide eyes.

"It was accidental," Black lied smoothly. "There was a faint smell of potion in there, Color Concoction. If you actually paid attention in potions and didn't rely on Snape's favoritism, you would've noticed it. Color Concoction and the Sweetening Solution smell similar, except the latter has unicorn hair in it. Without it, you get the Concoction. I couldn't smell the hair, so I knew something was wrong." It wasn't a lie. The twins had purposely created the color concoction and yet, Black was winging it for them. Making it seem accidental.

Malfoy huffed. "Accident or not, they should be punished."

"No, they wont." Black denied immediately. "You make mistakes all the time and you get rewarded for it. Let it go."

"How can you just let something like this go?" Malfoy seethed. Black took out her wand and waved it in a circle, making Malfoy stop. Pink and red steam started floating from his body and slowly, his hair turned back to it's white-blond and his skin back to its snake-like paleness. "Where'd you learn to do this, Cass?" He asked curiously.

"I pay attention in classes. Don't play dumb with me, Dray. You know that I actually like working for things."

"Fat load of help that does for you. Your parents ensure you get top grades anyway."

Black sighed, "Don't remind me. Now, would you like to go back to the common room? I think Crabbe and Goyle are eating all my chocolates."

"Probably." Malfoy breathed out, his anger calming down slightly. "I'm going to the dungeon. I'll meet you there." George looked around and realized that they had never been walking to the Hospital Wing but instead close to the dungeons. Malfoy stalked off, feet echoing in the cold corridor before Fred turned to George and nodded.

"Run." They mouthed to each other.

"Don't move." Black said as soon as they had mouthed to each other. "Who was your real target, Weasley's? Surely you knew that Draco would try and eat some."

Fred chuckled as she neared them. "Well, it was a win win situation."

"Either you or Malfoy ate it." George continued.

Fred. "Maybe even those fat gits, Crabbe and Goyle."

George. "With luck, Parkinson and Fawkes would've snatched some too!"

Black. "There really wasn't much of a fault in your plan," She admitted. "If you hadn't placed the note, I would've eaten it. Guess you lucked out." She didn't sound too angry despite her cousin being humiliated and laughed at in front of the entire school.

George nudged Fred, "See! Told you not to put in the note!"

Fred nudged him back, "I thought we agreed that she wasn't even our main target!"

George froze and nodded, "Oh, that's right." He said, laughing. "Because you are the nicest Slytherin we've met... Though we weren't sure if we wanted to trust you or not." George informed Black, who rubbed her eyes, blue eyes, and nodded.

"Understandable. What did Draco do this time?"

"Called Hermione a, a... A _filthy mudblood._" The twins said in perfect unison and tone, identical looks of fury and disgust plastered on their faces as they thought back on it. That was a while ago, Black suspected as Malfoy hadn't suspected a thing, they waited for the perfect time to actually get him back. Impressive. However, the impression was over shadowed by a bubbling rage.

"Mudblood?" Black questioned with a completely monotone voice. "A filthy mudblood. Were those his exact words?"

Fred scoffed and George nodded, "Hell yeah. He deserved it, no matter what you pure bloods think." He said defensively.

"You're a pure blood." Black reminded him.

Fred rolled his eyes, "Blood traitors, remember?" He said sarcastically. "Or are you going to tell us you _aren't_ like the rest?" He asked doubtfully. Black wasn't like the rest, they both knew that, but there was more than meets the eye. She was a Slytherin, they couldn't overlook that pulsing fact.

Black sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead, "Ah, Dray." She whispered to herself, shaking her head. He really over stepped the boundaries by saying that word. No one should ever say that word, ever. "Very well. Feel free to do it again if he ever says anything along those lines again."

"Wait-"

"What?"

Black nodded to their confusion. "I don't care how pure blooded I am, like hell I'm letting him get away with saying that." She murmured before turning around and prowling back to the dungeon. The twins looked at each other and started to shake their heads.

"Did we just convert a Slytherin onto our side?" George asked Fred, who started to grin.

"WE GOT BLACK!"


End file.
